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Inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems.

In all areas of our life, we find places and containers that act as inboxes which help us get things done and efficiently organised.

(Check Article 1 and Article 2 for a quick recap.)

We want to focus our attention and discussion on those inboxes that help us organise key elements of our daily life – our time, space, paperwork, projects, and tasks efficiently.

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Today, I start the discussion with

The paperwork inbox.

Many organisational inboxes allow us to follow our preferences and choose a physical or a digital version.

Like, for example, the inbox for our notes. We can choose a physical notebook to collect and organise our personal notes or decide to use a digital note app.

It’s different with our paperwork inbox. Usually, we can’t decide to have only one paperwork inbox:

Most of us need to keep a physical and a digital inbox:

• • If you prefer to keep your paperwork management system in physical form, you will still have to manage some information digitally. You probably receive a range of important documents – like clinic reports, online-shopping invoices, and investment reports – in digital form. And even if you decide to print those out, you need a place to temporarily collect/store them digitally.
  • If you decided to organise and store all your paperwork digitally, you will still need a physical box where you can collect important information and data that enters your home on paper. The next step is then to scan and digitise the data you want to keep and transfer it directly to your digital folder, or first to your digital inbox.

The physical paperwork inbox is a very basic form of an organisational inbox.

That’s why I chose it as the starting point for our discussion of the inboxes that help us organise our daily life.

As we have seen in the second article of this series, even the simplest inboxes require consistency and reliability/commitment from our side. They can’t function properly if we don’t treat them properly.

Let me go through the 3 rules of efficient inboxes and apply them to the physical paperwork inbox to demonstrate what I mean.

The RULE NUMBER 1: “Everything and always!

Everything that belongs into a specific inbox must always end up in that inbox.”

You could have a functioning (although very simplistic) paperwork-organisation system even if you decided to do nothing else with your papers (no sorting, decluttering, filing, etc.) but just stuck to Rule 1. 

As long as you always put every piece of paper that comes into your home in your paperwork inbox, you are in a safe place. Because you can be certain that you will always be able to find any piece of paper you need to find.

That’s good to know, I think.

Many of my paperwork-overwhelmed clients find huge relief in the idea that they actually don’t have to organise their papers if they don’t want to. They just must be committed to collecting them reliably in one place.

And yes, the idea that we need to follow only one simple and easy rule to manage our paperwork is super-attractive.

However, the simplicity and ease come at a price.

These are some of the disadvantages of the ‘one inbox & one rule’ paperwork-system:

• • You know exactly where all your papers are, yes, but you have no certainty about what’s exactly stored and potentially hidden under the piled papers in your box.

  • Over time, you not only accumulate huge amounts of paper, but you also pile up a lot of clutter. Because much of the information and data we receive on paper has an ‘expiry’ date. The papers that carry those data become worthless and meaningless – but continue to take up space in the paperwork inbox.

  • If you need a specific document, like your lease agreement or marriage certificate, you know you will find it in your inbox but – depending on the age and size of the paperwork inbox – you might have to invest a lot of time to search for it.

  • You also need to invest in storage space. Sooner or later, your paperwork inbox fills up, and you need to open a second box or transfer the content of the inbox into an archive box. Which needs to go somewhere. And quickly gets ‘siblings’. This paperwork (and paper clutter) family will soon occupy large areas of your basement, attic, or garage.

We can drastically increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the one-inbox paperwork system with the help of Rule Number 2 and Rule Number 3.

The Rule Number 2: “Regular check-ups!

Choose a regular routine (daily, weekly, monthly – whatever makes sense) for your inbox check-ups – so you always know at least broadly what’s in there.”

The Rule Number 3: “Regular decisions and actions!

Make decisions, regularly, about what to do with the stuff in the inbox – and then do it.”

The combination of Rule 1 with Rule 2 and Rule 3 ensures that the purely inbox-based paperwork system does what it’s supposed to do: help you organise and manage your paperwork.

The ‘Rule 1 + Rule 2 + Rule 3’ Working-Process

This is how the 3 rules work together:

Rule 1: We collect all incoming paperwork in the inbox, but we don’t leave it there unsupervised.

Rules 2 and 3: We do regular check-ups and use these to make decisions about the stuff in the box. We then take, if necessary, immediate action.

The frequency of the check-ups depends on the amount of paperwork coming in and its importance. And it depends on how urgent it usually is to take action.

In most cases, a weekly review is ideal, in some cases a monthly check-up is sufficient.

Decisions and actions during check-ups.

At check-up time, we empty the inbox.

We then take paper after paper up and ask ourselves a series of questions – and we answer/decide and act immediately:

Question 1 – ‘Do I still need it? Really?’

• • “no” – Very often, the honest answer will be ‘no’. In this case, we decide to throw the paper away – and we do that, immediately! The paper goes into the paper bin or shredder.
  • “yes” – If we decide we still need this paper, we ask the next question:

Question 2 – ‘What do I need it for? Reference or Action?’

• • “Reference’ – If we decide we need to keep the paper for reference purposes, it goes directly back into the inbox.
  • ‘Action” – If we decide we need to do something with this paper, we ask the next question:

Question 3 – ‘Can I get it done now?’

• • “no” – If we can’t take action immediately, we put the paper back into the inbox.
  • “yes” – If the answer is ‘yes’, we do what needs to be done with the paper. – And then we ask the next question:

Question 4 – ‘Do I still need it? Really?’

• • “no” – If the paper is no longer needed, it goes in the paper bin/shredder.
  • “yes” – If we decide that we need to keep it (for reference purposes?), we put it back in the inbox.

If we follow the 3 rules consistently, the paperwork inbox can act as the only or an important part of our paperwork management system,

Because it ensures that

• • we always have a clear idea about what’s currently in the inbox;
  • we don’t allow clutter to build up in the inbox – which saves us time and space;
  • we take action on any piece of paper that needs our action;
  • we still have all our paperwork in one place and know where to go when we need anything.

Conclusion:

• • It’s easy to instal and maintain a well-functioning paperwork inbox. (3 clear rules and a simple check-up/decision/action process)
  • A well-functioning paperwork inbox can act as the one and only pillar of your paperwork management system. It’s a very simplistic system but it works – if you stick to the rules.
  • A well-functioning paperwork inbox can act as the entry port to your paperwork management system if you want or need to organise your paperwork in a more complex and sophisticated way.
    • In this case, you follow the process as described above: You collect all incoming paperwork in the inbox. You do the regular check-ups, and you ask and answer the questions listed above, you decide and act.
    • However, you don’t put anything back into the inbox!
    • Instead, you transfer reference papers to your filing system. And any actionable papers that you don’t directly act on move into your task management system.

I’m going to discuss the organisation and maintenance of more complex inboxes that support specific filing and task management systems in future articles. 

In the first article of this series, I talked about why we need inboxes – if we want to get good at getting things done and organised.

I listed the inboxes that easily come to mind – like our email inbox, our mailbox, and the in-tray in the office.

I also came up with lots of other examples of containers or places that we use as inboxes in various daily life circumstances.  And I talked about the purpose and benefits of inboxes. 

This is a quick summary:

What are inboxes and what’s their purpose?

Inboxes are temporary storage areas for things that need to get done/organised in the future.

These storage areas

• • offer an easy and quick way to get things out of the way,
  • ensure that individual items don’t get lost,
  • are supposed to store things temporarily,
  • make sorted-away items retrievable,
  • offer quick overviews of pending tasks,
  • help sort and prioritise items.

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Today, I want to discuss what we need to do to make an inbox work. We need to follow just a few rules.

Important requirements of a well-functioning inbox.

Inboxes can only do their job – help us get things done and organised – if we do our job.

A set of rules helps us to do our job properly.

There is ONE RULE we must stick to ALL THE TIME.

It’s the absolute minimum requirement of any organisational system.

It’s also the only requirement – if you are happy with the very basic and simplistic results that a very basic and simplistic organisational system produces.

The RULE NUMBER 1: Everything and always!

Everything that belongs in a specific inbox must always end up in that inbox.

Examples:

Think about your calendar. Your calendar can only reliably help you organise your time if you transfer every appointment and every otherwise time-bound commitment to it.

Or consider your paperwork inbox (which I discuss in more detail in the next article):

Your paperwork inbox doesn’t have a chance to work efficiently if you don’t feed it reliably and consistently. If you, for example, put the mail into the box on some days, yes, but leave it on the garage shelves or place it on the kitchen counter or somewhere else on other days, your paperwork inbox can’t function properly.

You can only easily and reliably find that important invoice that you need to pay today, for example, if there is definitely only one place where it could be – the paperwork inbox, the place where every piece of paper lives before you need it or decide what to do with it.

You could have a functioning (although very simplistic) paperwork-organisation system even if you decided to do nothing else with your papers (no sorting, decluttering, filing, etc.).

As long as you just stick to this one rule and consistently collect all your paperwork in that one inbox, you are in a safe place. Because you can be certain that you will always be able to find any piece of paper you need to find.

Additional rules that drastically increase the worth and efficiency of your inboxes:

The Rule Number 2: Regular check-ups!

Choose a regular routine (daily, weekly, monthly – whatever makes sense) for your inbox check-ups – so you always know at least broadly what’s in there.

As said above, you will survive without checking your inbox regularly, but you will feel more in control and in charge – you will feel better – if you make sure that you know what’s going on there in that box.

Regular check-ups are a necessity if you want to follow the final rule – the one that will help you to actively get things done:

The Rule Number 3: Regular decisions and actions!

Make decisions, regularly, about what to do with the stuff in the inbox – and then do it.

For example: Decide which of the groceries in your fridge have become clutter – they are rotten or far over their expiry date – and must go. And then throw them in the bin immediately.

The Success-Team: Rule 2 plus Rule 3

The combination of Rule Number 2 and Rule Number 3 – that’s – in my opinion – the general recipe for success – success in any area of our life:

As soon as we, after a check-up, are aware of what’s going on, we are ready to make decisions. And as soon as we have decided what to do, it gets so much easier to take action and do it.

[That’s why I created and apply the ADA framework (Awareness – Decisions – Actions) all the time. I will talk more about it soon.]

The focus of the ‘Inbox’-article series.

I believe that inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems. In all areas of life, we find places and containers that act as inboxes and keep things organised.

Here, in this article series, however, we will focus our attention and discussion on those inboxes that help us organise important areas of our daily life – our time, space, paperwork, projects, and tasks – efficiently.

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The inbox for physical paperwork is the topic of the next article.

It’s super easy to instal and maintain a well-functioning paperwork inbox. This inbox could be(come) the only element of your paperwork organisation – or it could be(come) the entry port to your paperwork management system.

What’s an inbox?

It is not possible to get properly organised without the support of inboxes. We can’t avoid clutter from building up if we don’t have inboxes or if our inboxes are not well cared for.

Okay, but what is an inbox?

Inboxes are temporary storage areas for things that need to get done/organised.

Let’s have a look at a few examples:

The email inbox is the inbox that typically comes to mind when we talk about inboxes. It’s the easiest and simplest of all inboxes: We don’t have to instal/arrange it – as soon as we create an email account, we automatically get an inbox. We also don’t have to personally arrange the inflow of data and information into our inbox, it gets filled up automatically: Any message that anybody decides to send to our email address will end up in the inbox.  

The mailbox is another very common inbox. If we live in a place that has an address, we usually have a box that collects our mail. And even if we don’t have a specific mailbox, the postman will find another mail-inbox solution, for example by slipping our mail through under the front door.

The in-tray on an office desk is another inbox that most people working in bigger organisations are familiar with. The company courier drops the interoffice mail in the box, and colleagues use it as well to leave messages and documents addressed to the person who works at that desk.

There are many, many more containers or places that we use as inboxes.

Often, they are not called ‘inboxes’ although they do the job of an inbox:

Inboxes help us organise the various areas of our life and avoid clutter.

Think about these additional examples:

Many people organise their time with the help of a physical or digital calendar – the use of a calendar allows them to collect all professional and personal appointments and events in one place.

A shopping list is an inbox. It’s the place – typically a piece of paper or a note on the phone – where all the things we need to buy come together.

The ‘gallery’ app on your phone is an inbox. It automatically collects all the photos you take with the phone’s camera.

Your to-do list – in fact, any type of list – does the job of an inbox.  The same is true for a project action plan.

The laundry basket in the bathroom is an inbox. It keeps all the dirty clothes in one place.

Let’s have a look at what all types of inboxes have in common.

What’s the job/purpose of an inbox?

• • To provide us with a default place where we can easily drop things that we can’t work on, can’t make use of at this moment – we get both hands/our head free to work on other stuff.

Example:

You take the mail out of the letterbox before you enter the house and then quickly drop it in your general paperwork-inbox in your home-office. Now you can forget about the mail and are free to do whatever you want to do right now.

• • To provide us with a container/place where we can temporarily collect/gather loose individual items – we can trust that we don’t lose these ‘loose’ things.

Example:

While you are preparing dinner, you use up the butter. You write ‘butter’ on your shopping list where it stays with other to-buy items – until you take the list along on your next trip to the grocery store.

• • To provide us with a place where can reliably find things that haven’t been assigned their final destination – we know exactly where to find something that hasn’t been organised yet.

Example:

You are looking for a photo you recently took and find it easily in the ‘gallery’ app on your phone.

• • To provide us with an overview of the things that we still need to make decisions about or work on – we have all the things that must be taken care of in one place.

Example:

A quick look at your to-do list helps you remember the tasks that need to get done. Now you can decide what you want to tackle next.

• • To provide us with a place where we can sort the collected items into categories and/or according to priority – we gain an overview of groups of things to do, and we can decide what needs to be tackled first.

Example:

You empty the laundry basket and sort the dirty clothes into categories. You decide to get the shirts washed first because you want to do the ironing in the evening.

I believe that inboxes are a ‘natural’ basic element of all functioning organisational systems. In all areas of life, we find places and containers that act as inboxes.

As soon as you start thinking about inboxes, you will quickly start to see them everywhere.

What are some of the inboxes that you – consciously or unconsciously – make use of in your daily life?

Let me help you get going by giving you some personal examples from my life:

My examples:

Inbox for unread books – I have an area on our bookshelves where I (temporarily) store the books that I haven’t read yet. And on my Kindle, I have a folder called ‘To read’. So, whenever I buy a book that I don’t start reading immediately, I know where to put it. And if I’ve finished a book, I know where I can look to choose the next book I want to read.

Inbox for self-empowering thoughts – I keep a note in my note app for any useful thought I come across that I might want to practice thinking in the future. So, when I feel a bit low, I know where to go to find some positive inspiration.

Inboxes for groceries – Our fridge, freezer, and pantry are inboxes for the temporary collection and storage of certain types of groceries. Our groceries are not spread all around the house, they have an intermediary home.

Inbox for bookmarks – I keep bookmark folders on my laptop to collect interesting online articles, links, etc. One folder is called ‘Inbox’. If I am in a hurry or don’t know yet where to store something, I put it in the bookmark inbox.

Little Exercise

Pick one of the inboxes you regularly use in your daily life.

Now have a closer look.

• • What does this inbox actually do for you?
  • Does it do its job well? Reliably?
  • What would happen if you no longer had it?

In the next article of this series about inboxes, we discuss the requirements of a well-functioning inbox.

The 2-minute rule has been around for a while.

I don’t know who ‘invented’ the 2-minute rule. Maybe it was David Allen who presented it in his book ‘Getting things done’, first published in 2001.

The 2-minute rule is still very popular and most productivity gurus have it in their toolbox.

I like it because it’s so simple and clear, it’s very effective, and it can be applied to things we need to do in all areas of our lives.

The 2-minute rule is a great tool that helps us overcome procrastinating and get small tasks done immediately, whenever they come up.

The 2-minute rule says,

‘If you can complete an action in less than two minutes, do it right away.’

This means that whenever a new to-do shows up, you ask yourself whether you can do it immediately. If the action is simple and won’t take very long, the best thing to do is to take care of it right away.

If left unsupervised, small tasks can become a nuisance.

If you don’t complete these simple and quick tasks right away, they can quickly build up a backlog on your to-do list.

Or, even worse, if you think these tasks are so small that it doesn’t make sense to write them down, they will take up precious space in your brain – and might distract you from working on your priority tasks.

The longer you put the small stuff off, the harder it feels to accomplish it.

Whether they end up on your physical or on your mental to-do list, uncompleted small tasks tend to pile up and can become a heavy mental burden and cause stress, guilt, or other negative feelings. Typically, the consequence is ongoing procrastination.

The solution to this dilemma is to intentionally create a new habit.

Whenever a new task arises, you ask yourself, ‘Can I do it now? Will it take less than 2 minutes?

If the answer is ‘no’, you put the task on your calendar or on your to-do list.

If it is ‘yes’, you complete the task immediately. And then you can forget about it.

Like any new habit, this one as well requires some practice and effort in the beginning. However, you will quickly get used to the rule because it is so easy to remember and realise.

Find suitable ways to remind yourself, again and again: ‘I do quick tasks quickly.’

You’ll soon begin to move through your day and work with more speed and efficiency. You will feel more active and productive. And you will automatically pay more attention to more quick to-dos – and get them all done automatically.

The 2-minute rule will turn into a 2-minute habit.

Yes, periods of procrastination might happen from time to time but they will become fewer. And it will be easier to overcome them – because you know you are no longer a procrastinator but a quick action taker.

Practice the 2-minute rule by getting the piled-up tasks sorted out.

The 2-minute rule is a productivity tool that we usually apply to newly incoming tasks. Whenever during the day a new task arises, we decide in that moment if we can do it quickly right now. If not, we transfer it to the calendar or to-do list.

However, if you have a huge backlog of uncompleted small tasks on your to-do list, you can decide to use whatever time you have available to reduce the amount of undone stuff. If you have 30 minutes, for example, before you need to leave the house, you can realistically tackle about 15 quick tasks.

Ideally, before you start to work on the backlog, you first group together tasks that must happen in the same context. For example, all quick stuff that must be done on the computer. Or all the little things that you want to get done in the kitchen.

The 2-minute rule can only work if you have 2 minutes time, of course.

It’s important to deliberately decide when you have the time to do 2-minute stuff and when you don’t have it.

If you are already late in the morning, for example, it doesn’t make sense to water the flowers even if that would take less than 2 minutes. You can’t do any 2-minute task righ now – because you need the 2 minutes to reach the bus.

However, if you are wainting for the doctor’s assistant to call you back, you can use one or two 2-minute periods to water the flowers and do other quick stuff.

Another thing to be careful about it the risk that we slip into doing numerous 2-minute tasks at a time when we actually should focus on finishing a bigger urgent project.

The rule is a tool to overcome procrastination and we don’t want to misuse it as an excuse to create additonal procrastination in our life.

The 2-minute rule can be applied in all areas of our life.

Some examples:

At work:

• • The 2-minute rule can help you keep your inbox clear(er). You quickly evaluate each email: Can I get it done (read, delete, forward, answer, unsubscribe, …) right now? Will it take me less than 2 minutes? If the answer is yes, you know what to do.
  • Let’s say you start a new project and decide you need a project folder – the right time to create the folder is now. (It takes less than 2 minutes.)
  • You need to sign a document and get it back to your colleague? The best time to do it is now.
  • You notice the paper basked it full – and you get up and empty it now.
  • You decide that you won’t attend the business conference next week. And you call the travel agency to cancel the flight – right now

At home:

• • In the morning, you switch on the coffee machine – and empty the dishwasher while you are waiting for the coffee to run through.
  • After breakfast, you do the dishes – because it takes less than 2 minutes.
  • Before you leave for work, it’s a quick thing to water the plants in the living room.
  • In the evening, you clear up your home office desk. It’s a quick job.
  • Coming home, you take in the mail and directly sort out what belongs in the paper basket.
  • You open the mail – and immediately file a receipt for tax purposes.
  • You stop on your way to the backyard and quickly transfer the laundry from the washing machine to the dryer.
  • You arrange with your friends to meet for dinner on Friday and – directly after the call – make the online booking.
  • You think of your mother’s birthday – and get up to wrap the present and write the card.

How to make use of the rule and create a 2-minute action habit

The first step could be to check what’s currently on your to-do list.

Are there any items that you could get rid of rather quickly by doing them quickly? If yes, set yourself a time frame and get them done, one after the other. And enjoy the feeling of being active and productive.

Another option: Imagine a typical day and how you move through it, from morning to evening, and create a list of typical 2-minute jobs.

What are some little tasks that often show up and could be done immediately that you usually don’t do immediately?

• • Maybe, you leave the clothes from the day before on a chair in your bedroom and let them pile up until the end of the week. Would you have 2 minutes available in the morning to put them away?
  • Do you usually quickly browse through your emails, just to see what’s there? What if you decided to invest 10 minutes to get about 5 emails sorted out immediately?
  • Does it happen that you walk through the supermarket, wondering what you need to put in the trolley? What if you took 2 minutes in the morning to check the content of the fridge and write a shopping list?
  • Do you often rush out of the office in the evening, leaving a mess on your desk? Could you decide to stop working 2 minutes before you leave and use them to clear up the desk?

Make a list of the typical daily quick tasks that you often postpone.

And then experiment with doing them just when they arise (or even before they arise).

Often, time flies by, one day quickly passes, and then the next, and the next, and suddenly the week is gone.

And if someone asked us what actually happened during the week, what we did or didn’t do, what went well and what didn’t, we struggle to remember.

That’s a pity.

We risk losing valuable memories and experiences. And we miss the opportunity to learn from our daily successes and failures.

A little evening routine can help us live every day more intentionally.

EXERCISE

Every evening, sit down for 5 minutes (or do it while you brush your teeth), look back at the day that’s just ended, and answer these 3 questions:

• • What worked well today?
  • What didn’t work?
  • What am I going to do differently in future?

Let’s have a look how this works in more deteail:

Question 1: What worked?

It is important to start with thinking about what worked – because that brings you to a more positive place and opens your mind to the insights that can be gained.

List everything that went well this day. Every little thing. 

Ask, and answer, for example,

• • What did I do well today?
  • Which of the actions I took were effective?
  • Which helpful toughts did I have?
  • Which positive feelings did I experience?
  • What did I do well in my encounters with others?
  • What did I do better than the day before?
  • Etc.

Question 2: What didn’t work?

Keep the list as neutral as possible, avoid negative adjectives. This is just about creating an inventory of the things (actions and thoughts) that didn’t work out, it’s not about collecting accusations.

Ask, and answer, for example,

• • Which thoughts or beliefs got into my way and kept me from doing what had to be done?
  • In which ways didn’t I show up like I wanted?
  • Did I lack certain skills or necessary knowledge?
  • What did I do that made me feel frustrated, disappointed, miserable, …?
  • Etc.

Question 3: What am I going to do differrently tomorrow?

Based on your answers to the other two questions you can now make a plan and list what you want to do differently in future.

This step is vital for our development and our future successes, but most of us don’t do it – because we are so eager to get away from the not so perfect experiences that came to mind when we answered Question 2.

Answering these questions every evening makes every day – the good days and the not-so-great days – valuable.

If we deliberately evaluate what we experienced today, we can decide to make use of our insights tomorrow.

This means that we are living (more) intentionally.